Publisher: Activision
Ages: six and up.
Parental
Advisory:
Violence with bllod
Moving away from simple fight games into the roleplay genre, Activision's X-Men Legends is a great game and, surprise, a good game adaptation of the X-Men world. It's violent, which is what you would expect given the theme, but it's involving and entertaining.
It turns out that the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has freed their leader, the diabolical and notable Magneto. An unprovoked attack on mutant-kind by a secret Sentinel army encourages Magneto to use his superpowers to shroud the Earth in cosmic debris, which blots out the sun and plunges the globe into eternal winter. As the Sentinels hunt the mutants, the X-Men must confront Magneto and save the earth from certain destruction. This game has a real story that it tells through its many missions that vary in length and complexity.
In roleplay style, players get to recruit squads of four mutants from a team of 15, which include Wolverine, Gambit, Nightcrawler and Storm, and battle evildoers across a vast, interactive, fully destructible landscape. Players can switch among squad members at will and make wise use of each character's abilities to solve puzzles and fight. Heroes may upgrade their powers through a roleplay-style collection and number system and superpowers may be combined during attacks.
Decent multi-player options allow several to participate in missions, which adds to the game's value. And there are modes that let players compete against each other or computer-controlled characters. The graphics depict detailed, well-rendered characters. The action is fast and furious and be warned, the blood does fly.
In all, X-Men Legends is an engrossing and entertaining game. One of the best yet, based on the X-Men world. But despite the theme, it's not appropriate for younger kids.
1/12/05 www.daytrum.com Editorial Staff
